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 What ho Ladies and Gentlemen! - you look like a fine bunch. So I assume you’ve heard the call from Her Glorious Majesty Queen Victoria? Yes, it’s true, a whole new area has been opened up and is ripe for the Empire to expand into. Of course, we know that this will not be all fun and games - not only are the locals a trifle rowdy, but the Germans, the French and even the Japanese are looking forward to expansion - and that’s not to mention the mercenaries, the mad scientists and the other unknown horrors. It’s a brave new world and we need to plant a flag on it, dont’ya’know. So sign here, and we’ll get you and you lads on the first ship over there, let us see how much glory you can bring her Majesty - and maybe you’ll get rich trying! Welcome to In Her Majesty's name IHMN is a tabletop skirmish game set in a steampunk late victorian period - it comes with some pre-set lists but allows players to customise or build a wide range of pulp style characters. The plan is to run this something like the “Over the top” or FNG LP’s - except rather than a set unit and chain of command or a single soldier, here players will devise Companies and send plucky bands of soldiers against mad scientists, insane cultists, angry local tribesmen and maybe even the occasional mythological creature! (Who am I kidding, it’s going to be mostly monsters isn’t it.) I will then run the turns and roll the dice - the game will be split into three phases - the intrigue phase, the Actions phase and the battle phase.  Well the campaign I’m going to be running will be fairly free-form to begin with, but we need to set ourselves into a location - this will, to some extent set the tone of the game. some example/suggestions follow, but feel free to add your own - These will not limit the scope of the companies at all, but may help people feed into a cohesive storyline and get the creative juices flowing! Somewhereistan- where east meets west, this is a place of suspiciously young looking old men in castles, people with hair growth problems tied to lunar cycles and tribesmen who are still firing muskets. A great place to look for resources like oil, or to get away from society and its pesky ethics while conducting research on dead bodies that could change the very world! The Deep Jungle - impenetrable terrain, ancient temples and blowpipe and spear wielding natives. Here Explorers and Imperialists from the “modern” world meet cults, dig for gold and diamonds and search for fabled lost cities - there may even be a few dinosaurs left over! The Far East - a lawless land filled with lots of people (and fantastic food) - ancient kung fu monks fight out with modern bolsheviks while the west tries to grab as much land and power as possible. Will you be the one to import/export the next new drug? The criminal underworld is just as powerful here as any nation, so are the Tongs, Triads or Yakuza more your style? Risen Atlantis - Its back, after a few thousand years beneath the waves! Can you help The Weird West - There’s gold in them there hills! a cunning band could make themselves a fortune on in the new territories - that’s if they can survive the Banditos and the Injuns. Oh yeah, and that scientist who just made an enormous steam powered spider war machine.  First up, you need to build a Company - if you don’t have the rulebooks, then let me know what you want unit wise - you’ll have 250 points to spend to begin with. A simple list of the kind of units you want will do, and I’ll do the costing and figure out what you can get.There is also a list of the costs availible here on the designers website Basic stats are as follows Pluck - How brave your character is, and how easily they can shrug of a hit. FV - Fight Value - how good they are at close combat. SV - Shoot Value - How good they are at shooting, a high SV is needed to penetrate heavier armour. Armour - How well protected you are! Weapons - What do you kill with? Talents - where does your strength lie? Mystical Powers - Magic! Or sufficiently advanced technology. It all looks the same. “Ah-ha! I’m going to throw you” You say “I want a group of velociraptors! HA! can’t do….. oh wait.  Clever Girl + 4 Raptors. = 244 points. See, we’re dealing with a versatile system - so my raptors up there are fast, good close in but relatively easy to kill with no ranged weapons. Every Company needs a leader - so Clever Girl up there is the pack matriarch - she’s bigger, stronger and tougher than the rest, and has a low leadership score (they are animals after all) - but they are cheap units, so a large pack of raptors can still mess up the day of another group who can’t stop them closing the range. of course, there is nothing stopping me adding other dinosaurs - maybe those spitting ones, or a points heavy T-rex! - this is one of the weirder ideas, but it gives you an idea of what can be done - I want plenty of weird and wonderful groups! The only other thing needed are images to make tokens - mooks and grunts can share tokens, but leaders need their own.  So, you have a group of men/lost world dinosaurs. now what? Well, I’ll ask you what your aim is - to begin with, it’ll be something simple, such as to set up a base of operations or try and stop those pesky white men from digging up the ancient evil your clan has been guarding for millennia. But as the game goes on, the game world will develop and you will be fighting to stop Doctor X from releasing his mindless zombies on the world (or, trying to release said zombies. pesky doogooders). First up, people can join forces (as long as both agree) to form a faction - three units based off the British forces can form the British Army, while the Evil Count Count and Doctor X form the League of evil. (just with better names of course, I don’t want to take the good ones.) There is nothing stopping you from being independent of course, or from being a mercenary who works for the highest bidder. There will be two forms of communication - open and hidden. Open communication is basically posts in the thread - open statements and public bluster - looking for mercenaries? want to decry the actions of Sir Spiffing? this is for you. Hidden communication is emails between players (with me copied in so I can keep track of the mess) - this is where the secret plots are hatched. Maybe Doctor X is a little more extreme in his plan than you expected, and Mad Dan’s mercs want to jump ship - They contact the leader of the British Army and tell them. talks are held, and the British decide to attack Castle X. (Doc X is not the most imaginative when it comes to names.)  So, you have your plots and plans - and more importantly, I do. Then what? Well, I look at the list and come up with some scenarios. I will then post the “Actions” (as in places where there is action) pubically. So, let’s suppose that the above scenario is taking place. Doc X plans to raid a temple to get more magical mcguffins, but then the Actions list is posted. Raiders of the Temple of Doom (Doc X) Feeding Frenzy (Dinos) Attack on Castle X (British Army) The next step is for everyone to commit to an action as they see fit. every group can join any action, so larger factions may have to split their strength. Doc X sees the attack on his castle, and has to make a choice, he decides to call off the Raid mission (although some other group may go after the temple) and focus all his troops in the defence of his castle. He still doesn’t know that he’s being betrayed. Once everyone has committed to a battle, we move on to the battle phase. I’ll try and combine as many people into the same battlefield as possible, just to keep things interesting.  Now I provide a horribly drawn map with deployment zones on it. I also post the public objectives for each side. Some players may have secret objectives, which will be known to them and only posted at the end of the game. Players will deploy their troops, I’ll roll initiative and we’ll move and fight the game. Once the objectives have been completed or failed, the battle will end. So, carrying on my terrible example. The British send in all their troops and the Doctor all his. The objectives for the British are to destroy the De-deadyfier and the Doom gun. the Doctors’ forces are to prevent these from being destroyed and capture a British officer. The Mercs have the secret objective to open a sally port and hold it open long enough for 25% of the British forces to enter the castle - with bonus points for every 25% after that. The battle plays out, the Mercs take part of the wall and start shouting in the thread about how they're going to kill all the British, and the Doc is happy. Then the British get into range, and the Mercs fire like crazy but fail to hit anyone. and the Doc gets suspicious. Then the door opens and the Doc knows he’s been betrayed! The Mercs hold the door long enough to get most of the British forces in before quitting the field. They’ve only been paid to get them IN! Or maybe it doesn’t play out like that, maybe the Doc has a spy in the British camp and is ready for the betrayal - or maybe it’s a double cross, luring the British in so as to find new bodies for the Doc’s evil army, and the doors remain resolutely shut… Meanwhile, a bunch of half naked spear throwing natives stand around their temple wondering what that noise in the distance is. (hint, the dinos are eating everyone)  So, the battle is over, objectives were completed, men, women and monsters were shot, what is it all for? Cred, that’s what! Characters that are taken out during the game are not necessarily lost, many are just wounded to the point they have to retreat - there is a survival roll made after the battle. So we may see leaders fall at a steady rate - although if you are scared of that, you could always buy the immortal trait….. Cred is going to be our currency - it’s a combination of money, social standing, and supplies. Want to hire some mercs? You give them the an agreed amount of cred (in this case money) and they fight for you. Want to do something in the game world that is outside the normal rules (start a revolution, blow up a building) then you’re going to need to spend some cred.. Basically it’s our catch all resource. How do you get it? well, each party will generate 1 cred a battle, while more will be available in the form of loot. finally, the real prize will be cred generating structures - so it may be you spend a huge amount of cred on a new harbour, but then reap the rewards of owning that harbour. Until someone tries to take it off you. Factions can horde some cred as their own stores, but once it gets above a value of 5 cred per member group, the excess must be distributed fairly amongst the groups. What else can you use cred for? well, what about if you want to build a new room in your lair, or improve the fortifications around Camp Goon? Well, ask me, and we’ll work out a reasonable price. That’s not all though! What if you want to build a hydroelectric dam to supply power to the people of the region, thereby winning their eternal gratitude (and also flooding your rival’s lands) - spend a hefty wad of cred, and it could be yours - and best of all, it’ll then pay some cred out to you every round! Experience is gained by completing objectives and killing enemies. it’s expressed in points and is the same as the number of points needed to buy a model or upgrade - so if you have a 25 point grunt and have 25 points of experience, you can either spend that on another grunt or make the grunt better. I’ll allow cred to be converted into points at a rate of 25 per point, which should allow struggling groups to get back on their feet after a bad battle if they have a reserve. Hopefully what we will see is Heros and villains rise, gain power and wealth before getting gunned down on the battlefield - that nameless grunt does the wargaming thing of surviving against all odds, gets some points spent on him, continues to do awesome things and finally becomes the leader of your faction. What if things escalate? if we start to see large naval units, or lots of air units? well, I’ll just have to find some rules to cover that situation, won’t I!  So, this is going to be a lot to keep track of, especially if a lot of people sign up, so I’m going to limit the number of Companies/players to 10 to begin with. That’s still likely to be 100 models to keep track of. If/when people drop out, then new groups can enter the fray, and we will decide what to do with the old group if/when that happens. However if there is someone else with the rules who is willing to help me out, running battles and keeping track of stuff, then we may well be able to increase that - a copy of the rules is a must, and the ability to take screenshots - Photoshop would help, as we could share files, but Roll20 might work as well. I’m not entirely sure how it will work out. if you’re interested in running some battles, let me know by pm or email thegreyhunter on gmail.  So, to get people thinking, here are some general company background ideas! (and some areas I’d like people to avoid.) - Note, we’re going to skirt around the built in racism of the time. No one is inherently better than anyone else, they just have different goals and tech levels. This is pulp, so it has a certain feel to it, but we don’t want to stray too far down the path. A lot of these are broad categories that overlap, but it’ll give you some ideas. The “Civilized” World - you faction is from one of the Great Powers - Britain, France, Germany Russia, Austria - or one of the up and coming powers such as the USA or Japan. High levels of technology should be the norm, as well as a undeserved feeling you are doing the right thing - no matter what you are doing! The “Natives” - You actually live in the area, and while you may only have flintlocks, blowpipes or spears, it doesn’t mean you're not good fighters - or maybe you have modern weaponry, but you're just a few years behind or lack the training of the Civilized world. Maybe you are well trained and have access to guns, but not as many as you would like! The Mercenaries - Companies made up of people from all walks of life, no king or country here, just money! Robber barons, soldiers of fortune and members of the East India Trading companies. Villains - Power. Power! POWER! That’s what you want. and no meddling heroes are out here to stop you! Remember this is not a golden/silver age, so you are looking more at men with power than Powers. Heros - Damnation, Baron Von Evilgruber is up to his old tricks again? Time to leave the mansion and deal with him! Again, here we are looking more at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen than the much later Batman and Superman - although if you can make a steampunk Batman, go for it. Mad Scientists - New lands with no laws allow the push of science - maybe London wasn’t the best place to develop your nine foot tall steam policeman, but out here, they will be happy for you! You’ll show them! Or maybe that idol talks to you, and you really want to do what it tells you. Monsters - Vampires, Necromancers, Werewolves, things from other dimensions - I’d rather have people who can relate to people, but I’m not going to stop Lovecraftian or classical monster factions. Aliens - First restriction here - remember this is steampunk, so little grey men with plasma rifles are not what we are aiming for - tripod driving Martians, Morlocks and four armed aliens from Barsoome are! Summing up So, if you’re interested in combat in the back of beyond, with steampunk trappings and other madness. For now though I shall be taking suggestions and holding a vote for the location for this adventure! Do not aim/ask for companies. We will do that once we know where we stand. Anyone doing so will be publicly labeled an idiot. It’s okay to say what you’d LIKE to make, but please, don’t ask for a company of raptors before hand - you may feel a little stupid once we end up in London. Then again, maybe you won't…..
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Sep 29, 2015 18:01
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Grey this sounds totally insane and I am incredibly onboard! Somewhere instant sounds pretty amazing and potentially hella racist, but I'll have to go for Atlantis provided it could be somewhere in the Pacific....
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Sep 29, 2015 18:05
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Mercenaries sound pretty good in theory. As for the actual question- Somewhereisstan?
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Sep 29, 2015 18:07
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I'm going to register interest, and suggest we start a game in the Far East EDIT: Also, when we do get round to making companies, these two PDFs might be helpful. https://inhermajestysname.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/creating-your-own-company-in-ihmn.pdf https://inhermajestysname.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ihmn-reference-sheet-v4.pdf Nothingtoseehere fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Sep 29, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 18:17
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The Weird West = Best West
team overhead smash fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Sep 29, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 18:20
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Here's my suggestion: The Spice Islands! Two hundred years before the Portuguese and then the Dutch battled for control over the spice islands of Southeast Asia, but it is only with the onset of modern technology that the true riches of the Orient has become known - strange and bizarre plants of incredible industrial, medicinal, and scientific use, all requiring only that someone with the means and the will go forth to exploit them! As the great powers ready their fleets and marines and eye each other suspiciously, the solemn brotherhood who have long guarded the sacred herbs of the islands make ready for what may be their final battle - and around them, meantime, life continues with swashbuckling Dyak pirates looking for easy prey, dashing dirigible captains leaping towards the nick o' time, and cunning mercenaries selling their expertise to the petty kingdoms of the islands, forever plotting for advantage over their ancient rivals!
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Sep 29, 2015 18:28
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Are you guys sure you don't want
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Sep 29, 2015 18:30
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The weird west: Long live the nation of Loveless! And we are civilized out west thank you very much.
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Sep 29, 2015 18:33
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Color me interested in this wonderfully insane idea. I vote for Atlantis, because we could have varied terrain, crazy-rear end technology, and Cthulu, who makes everything better. What's not to love?
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Sep 29, 2015 18:39
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lenoon posted:Are you guys sure you don't want Well, I'm sold. Atlantis
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Sep 29, 2015 18:43
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I'll go with Atlantis. I skimmed the open rules, though I have to ask; how do vehicles work, if at all? Are they something do-able in the system? Could I have my "company" be 250 points of delicious steampunk mech/tank goodness or is it just boots?
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Sep 29, 2015 18:46
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Count me in! I think atlantis is the perfect place for adventure!
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Sep 29, 2015 18:48
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Atlantis
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Sep 29, 2015 18:52
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Gamerofthegame posted:I'll go with Atlantis. You could, but from the quick scan of the open rules a nat 1 when hit always kills you, so putting all your eggs in one basket is a Bad Idea.
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Sep 29, 2015 18:52
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Gamerofthegame posted:I'll go with Atlantis. nothing to seehere posted:You could, but from the quick scan of the open rules a nat 1 when hit always kills you, so putting all your eggs in one basket is a Bad Idea. Nonsense! The STEAM-BOT 8750 is an invincible machine that can never be destroyed by puny mortals or bad dice rolls!
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Sep 29, 2015 19:04
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nothing to seehere posted:You could, but from the quick scan of the open rules a nat 1 when hit always kills you, so putting all your eggs in one basket is a Bad Idea. Pshaw, what is this, Civilization? Those spear men will do nothing to our mighty tanks! Now, get up top and shovel more coal in the hopper, if you would!
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Sep 29, 2015 19:15
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Weird West! and if it doesn't involve a rapping Will Smith then I'll be upset.
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Sep 29, 2015 20:02
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Atlantis
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Sep 29, 2015 20:10
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I propose Ouragistan. We need some German dinosaurs fighting British and American landships damnit. This is a reference only the groggiest of grogs is likely to recognize.
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Sep 29, 2015 20:36
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Atlantis Those crazy natives need to be
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Sep 29, 2015 20:44
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Atlantis sounds magical.
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Sep 29, 2015 21:09
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We need to stay in The Jungle.
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Sep 29, 2015 21:16
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Risen Atlantis
AtomikKrab fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Sep 29, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 21:29
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I don't care where we go, as long as it's somewhere we can avoid arguing about the horrible racist stereotypes that I can already see this game is chock full of. I think that means Atlantis
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Sep 29, 2015 21:37
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I think Atlantis is winning, so my first thoughts as to what i'd want would be either Large Belligerent Crustacean and his uplifted octopode minions or Dashing Pirate from the 1500s who along with his crew and ship fell through the bermuda triangle to end up here.
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Sep 29, 2015 21:53
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TildeATH posted:We need to stay in The Jungle. Welcome to the Jungle, we've got fun and games!
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Sep 29, 2015 22:00
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I'm thinking something along the lines of 19th Century British XCOM, if we are in Atlantis.
Nothingtoseehere fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Sep 29, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 22:01
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nothing to seehere posted:I'm thinking something along the lines of 19th Century British XCOM, if we are in Atlantis. A secret agency of fishmen devoted to keeping the alien invaders (humans) from causing trouble in our fair country without its residents ever becoming aware of their presence.
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Sep 29, 2015 22:38
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The jungle has dinosaurs, and is therefore the obvious choice.
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Sep 29, 2015 22:49
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Counterpoint: Atlantis has icthyosaurs, and presumably sapient ones at that. With steam-powered landwalking armor suits. No one steal my company idea.
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Sep 29, 2015 23:36
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The fabled long-lost city of Atlanta.
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Sep 29, 2015 23:39
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I feel duty bound to vote for Atlantis if it leads to steam-powered landwalking armour suits and other works of mad science.
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Sep 29, 2015 23:46
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Get the strangest feeling we're going to Atlantis.
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Sep 30, 2015 00:00
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Pfft, velociraptors and pirates are simply no match for a modern steed. Yes there is a certain nobility associated with a glorious charge performed by a fine, mighty war animal. I am of course talking about the polar bear. Perfect for Atlantis as the Bears are used to swimming after prey. After the crushing defeat in Alaska at the hands of general Seward. The tzar has sent his finest regiment of bear cavalry to claim Atlantis for the motherland and restore Slavic pride.
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Sep 30, 2015 00:14
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Ooo, I like the Jungle. Can you have cowboys riding velociraptors?
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Sep 30, 2015 00:33
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Not in the Jungle. Dinosaurs could exist in the great unexplored terrain of the Weird West but Cowboys in a jungle is preposterous.
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Sep 30, 2015 00:38
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Heh. Finally got a chance to give this a more thorough read and I have to say this is much more involved than I expected. I like it, I need this craziness in my life.
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Sep 30, 2015 00:48
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Steampunk XCOM against Atlantean dinosaurs.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:19
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team overhead smash posted:Not in the Jungle. Dinosaurs could exist in the great unexplored terrain of the Weird West but Cowboys in a jungle is preposterous. Trust me, cowboys will show up anywhere there is a high chance of death and strange animal to climb on and ride.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:23
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team overhead smash posted:Not in the Jungle. Dinosaurs could exist in the great unexplored terrain of the Weird West but Cowboys in a jungle is preposterous.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:28
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